


Enola isn't alonE anymore

by thatwasabad_idea



Category: Enola Holmes (2020)
Genre: 1890s, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Arranged Marriage, Attempted Murder, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Nobility, Victorian, nincompoop, not really enemies tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26769727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatwasabad_idea/pseuds/thatwasabad_idea
Summary: Arranged Marriage AU.Everything else is basically the same.Enola's marriage had been arranged by Mycroft to "a man high above your station, so you better not muck this up, Enola." Obviously Enola doesn't care and runs away with money her mother had given her before her death. On the way she runs into Viscount Tewkesbury, (her betrothed, not that she knows it) and saves his life.
Relationships: Enola Holmes & Eudoria Vernet Holmes, Enola Holmes/Viscount "Tewky" Tewksbury
Comments: 17
Kudos: 303





	1. Nincompoop

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this is my first fic, but I would love some constructive criticism :)   
> Also I posted this on Wattpad as well, and the wattpad one will probably be updated quicker. My username is thatwasabad-idea on Wattpad. I am planning to update once a week or so, but i may not stick to that. Please enjoy :)

Enola knew that running away was an utterly moronic idea, when her brilliant and powerful brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft respectively, would search for her, but she just couldn’t help it. Mycroft had decided that after he had to assume responsibility of her, because their mother had abandoned her, the best course of action was to marry her off, to “a man high above your station, so you best not ruin this, Enola.” 

Her mother had told her of how awful men could be, and Enola knew that anyone of high station willing to marry her, would be an awful old man, only interested in her siring an heir. Enola thought this was an awful idea, but pleading as much as she could did nothing, so she made a plan and ran away, as a boy with all the money her mother had left for her of course. 

As Enola had boarded the train, she had of course noticed the commotion caused by the fancily dressed family looking for their son, as had everyone else boarding the train. But, unlike others aboard the train, she had noticed that the family definitely seemed to know who the last man to board the train was. Enola had been sitting in the train carriage, thinking about the mystery, when an extremely large bag opposite her began to move. 

Enola watched with a strange fascination, which quickly turned to confusion, and a slight bit of fear, as a knife ripped through the bag, followed by a hand, and then a head. Then the bag fell from the rack and the person inside, for Enola and her detective skills had indeed concluded a person was inside, made a very loud and very pained grunt. Enola’s fear quickly grew and she, as politely as she was able, asked him to get out of the carriage. Her fear did not come from this young man, for she believed she could easily defeat him, but instead from the idea she could be discovered and sent back to Mycroft and his ludicrous arranged marriage.The young man, unaware of her plight, refused to leave the carriage, even after her requests for him to leave became a lot less polite. 

“You’re a strange looking gentleman.” He stated, trying to change the topic off of him leaving the carriage as requested. Enola’s response was neither polite nor ladylike, but why would she be polite to this stranger, and since when had she ever been ladylike?

“You think you look normal?” Enola scoffed, shifting to minimize her chest. Unfortunately, this just brought the irritating stranger’s attention to precisely the area she had been trying to hide.  
“You’re not a boy at all!” He exclaimed, as though having figured out a great mystery.  
“I might be!” Enola said, as though her voice had risen two octaves during the sentence. “Who are you?”  
“What are you?” This was the only sentence that the man deemed worthy of a proper response, as he stuck out his hand and responded;  
“I’m Viscount Tewkesbury, the Marquess of Basilwether.”   
Enola’s response of “You’re a nincompoop.” did not go down well with the Viscount.   
He quickly rebutted, “I’ll have you know, I have just undertaken a particularly daring escape--”Enola was fast becoming sick of this man and his arrogance, especially considering he wasn’t even correct!   
“You haven’t escaped! There is a man in a brown bowler hat currently on this train, searching for you, and once he finds you, he will think I helped hide you, and I will be endangered by this. Therefore, I ask you to get out of this carriage.” Enola said this all with extraordinary calmness, although she was seething on the inside.   
The Viscount responded to Enola, but the only things she really heard were “You remind me of my uncle,” which is a strange thing to say to a teenage girl and “I’m free.” Enola quite simply did not care, so she once again asked him to leave her carriage.

She was pleasantly surprised when he actually did so, and began to settle down and relax into her seat. Less than a minute later, the Viscount was back, heavily slamming the carriage door while shouting about the man in the bowler hat. Enola decided this was far too much effort, when all she was trying to do was avoid a marriage and find her mother, so she left the carriage. As she walked down the corridor the man in the bowler hat aggressively bumped into her. Now call it a gut feeling, but she did not trust that man’s intentions toward the nincompoop she had left in her carriage. She paused, but began to walk away from the carriage again, until she heard what could only be signs of an attack and calmly walked back towards the carriage.

Once there she got quite the shock! Tewkesbury was being shoved out of the carriage, leaning above the fast moving countryside, and failing to get back onto the train. Tewkesbury started to yell when he realised they were approaching a tunnel, and Enola did the only thing she could, pick up the attacker’s walking stick and hit him with it. The man fell back into the carriage, and Tewkesbury came far too close to being slammed into a stone wall. Luckily for Tewkesbury, Enola managed to pull him back in, milliseconds before the door was smashed off.

Enola and Tewkesbury rushed towards the front of the train, closely followed by the evil bowler hat man. Once they reached the coal compartment, they climbed onto the side, and Enola figured out a truly insane plan. As the bowler man reached out to grab Tewkesbury, a second before the train crossed a high bridge, Enola grabbed Tewkesbury’s clothes, and jumped off of the train, pulling him off with her. They fell heavily, and rolled down the hill with remarkable speed, Enola just managing to stop herself from falling off the cliff and into the water below.


	2. Sleeping Together...

After they had gotten up, which had taken quite a while because of Tewkesbury's complaints, they had begun to walk. Around half an hour into this walk, unable to bear it any longer, Enola suddenly said "You do know you have entirely ruined phase three of my plan?"

Now Tewkesbury wasn't the type of person to make plans, especially ones that were complicated enough to have phases so he asked "Phase what? Who the hell are you?" After Enola failed to respond, instead choosing to keep striding towards wherever she thought their destination was, Tewkesbury continued, "Look, I believe our recent brush with death deserves me at least a name."

Enola groaned in her head before she tersely stated "Enola Holmes."

"Holmes... like Sherlock?"

"Yes, Holmes like Sherlock. He's my big brother."

"That's so cool! Is that why you are dressed as a boy? Are you undercover working with him?"

"No. I'm undercover from him. I ran away."

"But why? I would love to have an older brother, especially because then he could be forced into the stupid marriage instead of me!"

"You're being forced into a marriage? Aren't you a Lord?"

"I'm not a Lord yet. And Uncle told me that having a wife makes it a lot easier to be a Lord. That's what he noticed from my father anyway. But seriously, why have you run away from your family? You're a girl!"

"You think I'm unable to run away just because I'm a girl? How dare you! I pity the woman who has to marry you." Enola sneered up at Tewkesbury. He at least had the decency to look ashamed with himself before he once again opened his mouth;

"I meant why did you run away? It's not safe for girls by themselves."

"That's why I'm not dressed as a girl. But I ran away to find my mother, so she could take back guardianship of me and cancel the marriage arrangement Mycroft made."

"Whose Mycroft?"

"My eldest brother. He's some fancy-pants working for the government, and to him, I am the biggest inconvenience imaginable. So he decided to marry me off to some rich old fart so I wouldn't be his responsibility anymore!" Enola looked away as she took a big breath to calm down and stop yelling at Tewkesbury. Once she had gotten her breath back, she continued walking and Tewkesbury, who had been standing on the spot, in amazement, hurried after her.

They walked for several hours talking about random things, the disappearance of Enola's mother, the death of their fathers, Tewkesbury not wanting to disappoint his family, but desperately not wanting to be married to "some frivolous rich lady, with less brain cells than dresses." This of course led to Enola describing what she thought her future husband would have been like; Enola thought he would be an old man, on his third wife, with no heirs but three daughters far older than her. She would be expected to give birth to an heir or die trying, and her husband's name would be "Lord Gerald Thimblestout the fifth, Baron of Warrington."

Enola was still rambling on about all the things wrong with the man she had been betrothed to, who she had never met, when Tewkesbury suddenly interrupted her.

"Enola, um.. thank you for not leaving me in the carriage with that man." Tewkesbury did not look at Enola as he said this, almost as though he were ashamed to admit she had saved his life. Despite this Enola was glad he seemed to possess some semblance of manners, even if it took him an extraordinarily large amount of time to use them.

"You're welcome Tewkesbury," she said, blessing him with a genuine, if small, smile. Tewkesbury looked up and met her eyes, and for a second it felt like everything stopped.

Until a bird pooped all over Tewkesbury's jacket. Enola looked away, laughing as Tewkesbury simultaneously yelled obscenities at the bird, who had flown into a nearby tree, and desperately tried to get the bird poop off his jacket without touching it. He was unsurprisingly failing. Enola let out a sigh before walking over to him, pulling his handkerchief out of his pocket, and beginning to wipe the poop off of his jacket. As soon as Enola touched Tewkesbury's jacket, it was almost as though he stopped breathing, muscles tensing under his clothes. Enola ignored this, it wasn't as though she knew what was going through the nincompoop's head. Once she was satisfied with the cleanliness of his jacket, she stepped back and said "We should think about sleeping soon."

"No, we should think about eating soon."

"We have nothing to eat." Enola stated glumly, for she was also hungry. Her words seemed to spark a desire in Tewkesbury, to prove her wrong. He ran around naming plants they could eat before delegating Enola to starting a fire. Enola tried to look unimpressed, but there was something so happy and proud in his face, and even Enola couldn't bring herself to ruin it. In all honesty, she was thankful he was here, as she wouldn't have eaten otherwise.

After they had finished eating, sitting around an absolutely marvellous fire if Enola said so herself, Enola brought up cutting Tewkesbury's hair. She thought as a Marquess he would be a little more concerned about chopping his hair off... but he didn't seem to care at all! Enola sharpened her knife, and then moved behind Tewkesbury and began to cut his hair.

Tewkesbury began to speak hurriedly, as though he was afraid the words wouldn't come out unless he said them all at once; "I wasn't going to run away, you know? I was going to stay with my family, the perfect son, become a Lord, get married to a pleasant woman, have several children, but I was going to hate every single second of my life. A tree branch broke above me, when I was out in the woods collecting mushrooms, and I decided if my life could end at any time, it may as well end as a life I enjoy having. Obviously I didn't plan for someone to try and kill me on a train! Or for you to come back and... save me." His voice which had initially been urgent and loud, had faded to a low, near whisper towards the end of his speech. Enola had leaned in to hear him and he tensed. Enola didn't notice and continued to cut his hair, which was surprisingly soft for all that they had done today and he smelt of flowers. All the flower scents were mixed together in one, but it was nice.

Enola blushed and shook her head, before taking a step back and continuing to cut his hair. Tewkesbury relaxed, and he went to run his fingers through his hair before Enola dropped her knife, and grabbed his wrist with surprising force. Such surprising force in fact, that Tewkesbury had yanked his arm back to its original position, with Enola still holding on. This had pulled her down in a mess, and she had landed lying across a tomato red Tewkesbury's lap. Enola hurriedly got up, and smacked Tewkesbury's head.

"What on earth did you do that for, Enola?"

"You utter useless boy! You were going to run your fingers through your hair while it had a blade in it? I had to stop you! I could have cut your fingers off!"

Tewkesbury, whose blush had seemed to calm down for a moment, flared back in full force. "Oh... I thought it was on purpose." He said to himself, sounding almost disappointed. Whatever. Enola couldn't care less about this nincompoop, she had only stopped him because she didn't want blood on her knife, 100%.

Tewkesbury had this look on his face, one even Enola knew would mean questions she didn't want to answer. To delay the interrogation, Enola told Tewkesbury she was going to bed, and he should too. Probably wasn't the best choice of words, looking back, but Enola was exhausted.

"But, um where am I supposed to sleep?" Tewkesbury asked.

"Underneath the tree? With me, obviously." Enola said this so matter of factly, Tewkesbury couldn't argue. Enola put out the fire and went to lie down on the soft grass under the tree. It wasn't as nice as her bed obviously, but she could deal. Enola laid down and was asleep before Tewkesbury laid down near her, but not close enough to be touching, for he at least respected propriety, even if this entire situation was improper.

During the night they had both gotten cold. Not cold enough to wake, but enough to subconsciously draw them towards the closest heat source, each other. Tewkesbury woke slowly, not to his servant as he was accustomed, but to the extraordinarily loud chirping of birds. He was quite surprised to find himself warm, as he had thought it would be freezing, as it had been last night. When he opened his eyes and realised that Enola curled against his chest was the reason he was warm, the rest of him woke up very quickly. He quickly moved away, grateful she hadn't woken first, as she would have entirely blamed him. Tewkesbury tidied off his clothes, as they had become covered in dirt and leaves during the night, before sitting down on the log and waiting for Enola to wake. Thankfully she did so quickly, looking slightly cold and when she spotted Tewkesbury was up, annoyed.

"Why didn't you wake me? The quicker we start walking the quicker we get to London!"

"I only just woke up myself," Tewkesbury responded, although it was a lie. "I was about to wake you anyways." This seemed to mollify Enola and she quickly got up, tidied herself off and began walking, presumably towards London. Tewkesbury got up off the log and hurried towards her, knowing she would not hesitate to leave him behind. They walked until around noon, when Enola managed to bribe some sheep farmers to let them hitch a ride to London.

It was a very long ride, and apart from the bleating of the sheep and the occasional comment from Tewkesbury, Enola could have almost called it peaceful. They continued driving through the night, Enola unintentionally falling asleep upon Tewkesbury's shoulder multiple times, only to be jolted awake and blush before Tewkesbury could go to sleep as well. In the morning, they were awoken from their far too short sleep by the sheer noise of London.

As soon as the cart stopped Enola promptly got off. Tewkesbury looked at her sadly, wishing they would stay together. Their separation was quite emotional, on Tewkesbury's side at least. As the cart continued away from Enola, he almost looked like he would cry, but he instead continued looking at Enola until the cart turned a corner away and he could know longer see the most interesting person he had ever met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who read last chapter! Hope you enjoy this one too.   
> I hope to post next Friday as well, but school is restarting so it may be a bit late.   
> Please tell me what you think! :)


	3. Reunited

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait. Truly I am! But I am back now, and I will post another chapter before Christmas. So here is Chapter Three :)

What seemed like a great deal of time passed before Enola found Tewkesbury again, even though it was only four days. She had discovered her mother’s plans to blow… something up, or indeed several somethings with the sheer amount of explosives she had found. The bowler hat man had found her, and once again tried to commit murder, but this time it was the murder of Enola. She had gotten away and escaped of course, but the majority of her body was sore, bruised and bloody. Then she had booked a carriage to the home of Tewkesbury, and met his rather rude uncle and his nice if traditional grandmother. The most important discovery of her trip was where Tewkesbury would be. The second most important discovery of her trip was that the attempts upon Tewkesbury’s life had started before he had left his home. 

The day after Enola’s discoveries, she had paid for a carriage to take her to the flower markets, as her body was still awfully sore from the attempt on her life two days earlier. Once she reached the flower markets, Enola was determined to make Tewkesbury believe she was fine. She was there to protect him, and Enola didn’t want him to act as though she needed any help, even if she kind of wanted some.

Enola hobbled around the flower markets for an hour or so, desperately looking for Tewkesbury. She had mistaken several young men for him at first glance, only to realise they weren’t, dare she say it… handsome enough to be Tewkesbury. When Enola finally found the actual Tewkesbury, she straightened up, and, even though it was agonisingly painful, normally walked towards Tewkesbury. Enola noticed she had smiled when she noticed him, and immediately set her face in an arrogant look, to mask how weirdly happy she was to see him once more.

Tewkesbury looked very happy to see Enola too, until he thought she had come to get the reward for his return to his home. Enola did not want to see that look of despair and betrayal etched on Tewkesbury’s face ever again if she could help it. So she quickly leapt forward, and jokingly suggested she must tie him up and claim her reward. A blush spread across his cheeks, as he gave Enola a small smile. Enola tightened her grip on his jacket, as he did so, and she began to blush also. A lady nearby coughed loudly in their direction, and Enola quickly let go of Tewkesbury and looked away, now well aware her cheeks were burning. All of this movement was not a smart decision for the cuts and bruises all over Enola’s body, especially as she felt one of the cuts reopen, a smaller one thankfully, and slowly start bleeding on the inside of her corset. She winced, before turning back to face Tewkesbury who looked adorably confused.

“I’ve come here because… I’ve grown to like you more in your absence, and because, as it turns out your life is still in danger.” Enola who had been looking down, sheepishly as she admitted the first part, looked up into Tewkesbury’s eyes as she said the second part, trying to express just how much danger he was in. Tewkesbury, useless boy that he is, pulled several flowers from behind him and asked the most unnecessary question ever;  
“What’s made you like me more?” he asked. Enola gave him the best ‘how dumb are your priorities’ stare she could muster, but she could tell it was not up to snuff, considering she was using most of her not inconsiderable brain power, on not keeling over on the ground.

“Really?!? That is your question? You don’t want to know who is trying to kill you first?” In response, Tewkesbury presented the flowers to Enola with flourish. He looked very confident, but the look in his eyes suggested he was nervous she wouldn’t accept it. Enola took them and they began to walk towards her accommodation. 

It was a slow walk, with Enola pretending to look into shop windows, as excuses for why she kept stopping. She had nearly dropped the flowers several times, and had initially been tempted to throw them away, but the look of sheer hope and joy on Tewkesbury’s face every time he glanced at the flowers had convinced her otherwise. There weren’t many flowers, only 6 or so, but to Enola it felt as though she were carrying 100 bouquets. 

She soldiered on, and when they finally reached the boarding house, Enola collapsed on her bed. Tewkesbury, who had been examining the room with disbelief, turned at the loud noise, and finally got a good look at Enola’s face. Her face was very pale, and she was sweating quite profusely, as well as seemingly having difficulty breathing. Tewkesbury rushed to her bedside, accidentally knocking a piece of white cloth of something. He leant to pick it up, and noticed to his utter embarrassment, that it was Enola’s… undergarments. He quickly stood back up, his face the colour of a cherry. Enola let out a small huff, as if she couldn’t breathe any deeper, and he quickly returned his attention to her.

Enola beckoned his face closer, and in a raspy voice said, “My corset is too tight. Can you please undo it, Tewkes?” Enola closed her eyes in apparent exhaustion from the effort of saying that. It was very lucky for Tewkesbury that Enola had shut her eyes as he had somehow gotten even redder, and knew his face had conveyed utter shock when Enola called him Tewkes. (In the back of his mind he knew that she had just gotten too tired to say the rest of his name, but a boy can dream.)

He finally found his voice, and tried to act as though this hadn’t affected him, by saying “Enola, that is really very improper. I shouldn’t see your undergarments if we aren’t married!” Tewkesbury had almost succeeded in acting unbothered, before his voice rose at least one octave saying undergarments, and continued rising until he said ‘married’. He knew if Enola’s eyes were open, she would have made fun of his ridiculously red face, but thankfully she hadn’t seen it.

“Tewkesbury, please. I can’t breathe.”   
“Enola, it is most improper!”  
“Please.” She sounded so defeated, Tewkesbury’s limited resistance shattered, and with even more blushing, he asked her to roll over. She thankfully managed to do so without assistance, and Tewkesbury was surprised his eyebrows hadn’t burnt off, from the sheer heat radiating off of his cheeks.

Once she had rolled over, Tewkesbury quickly realised, to immeasurable embarrassment, that her dress opened at the front.   
“Enola?”  
“Yes, Tewkesbury?”  
“You need to undo your dress.”  
“I can’t. The buttons are too small!”  
“Enola, it undos in the front. I can’t undo it for you!” In response, Enola, whose eyes were still closed, rolled back over and waited. Tewkesbury hesitantly stepped forward, and slowly reached for the lowest button. He undid it and quickly moved on, unwilling to let his brain focus on the fact he was undressing Enola. He kept undoing them, before realising that the next button was in a spot his mother had told him quite strictly, “You are not to go anywhere near, unless you are married, is that clear?” but seeing as how he had run away from his family because of all the rules he was expected to follow, although he hadn’t thought that that specific rule would even need to be thought of, he moved his hands up and undid it. He gently pulled it off of her shoulders, only to discover yet another layer to be removed. 

This went on for quite some time, untying and removing layer after layer of fabric and boning, until finally Enola was left in her shift, stockings, a petticoat and the corset. Tewkesbury went to undo it, before quickly realising that Enola was going to have to at the very least sit up so he could reach the strings properly. After several failed attempts, he finally managed to loosen the corset enough to remove. He pulled it off of Enola, moved away, and finally relaxed. He had never spent so much time in such close proximity with a woman, let alone while he was undressing her. Then he realised Enola hadn’t actually gotten into her bed, so she was just lying on her bed, basically naked! Tewkesbury quickly moved her into her bed, as she was almost asleep already and decided to read her newspapers until she woke up.


End file.
